New directives for safer roads in the
EU

In its efforts to halve the number of road
fatalities by 2010, the European Commission has adopted two proposals for
directives today. The first directive aims at improving safety on the major
roads, i.e. the trans-European transport network (TEN-T) through infrastructure
measures and better engineering. The second directive provides for existing
heavy vehicles to be equipped with "blind spot mirrors" in order to reduce the
number of accidents involving in particular cyclists and
motorcyclists.

Jacques Barrot, European Commission Vice-President in charge of transport,
welcomed the adoption of the two proposals. He underlined that in order to bring
down the high number of road fatalities, a comprehensive road safety programme
was needed that builds on three pillars: infrastructure, vehicles and drivers.
Referring to the first proposal he said: "Many lives could be saved and many
accidents avoided if the existing road infrastructure was managed according to
the best available know-how on safety engineering."

The first draft directive aims to bring road safety management to higher
standards throughout the EU. It defines guidelines and best practices for all
stages of infrastructure management, including road safety impact assessments,
road safety audits, network safety management and safety inspections. The
directive does not impose technical standards or procedures but invites Member
States to make better use of existing procedures and practices.

The Commission estimates that the proposed measures, if applied to the major
roads, i.e. the Trans-European road network, could reduce the number of
accidents with injuries by 7000 and avoid the loss of 600 lives every year. With
the second directive on retrofitting existing heavy vehicles with "blind spot
mirrors", 1200 more lives could be saved on European roads until 2020.

This measure aims at protecting particularly vulnerable road users such as
cyclists and motorcycle drivers. Every year approximately 400 road users lose
their lives in accidents, because lorry drivers fail to notice them when taking
a right turn. New heavy duty vehicles of more than 3.5 tons will already have to
be equipped with blind spot mirrors as of next year under an EU Directive of
2003. This will, however, not reduce the risks stemming from the existing fleet
of heavy goods vehicles, which in the EU stands at around 5 million today.

Compared to the average costs of a retrofit (between € 100 and 150 per
vehicle), the benefit for the society will be much higher. Where due to specific
circumstances heavy vehicles can only be retrofitted at much higher costs, the
proposed directives allows for flexibility; inspection authorities can accept
exceptional alternative solutions in order to prevent distortion of competition
in the haulage market.